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Declan McCullagh | 1 Nov 2005 19:50
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Forbes runs a stunning series of articles on fighting bloggers [fs]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: stunning series of Forbes articles on blogging...
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 14:39:58 -0700
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall <at> gmail.com>
Reply-To: joehall <at> pobox.com
To: Dave Farber <dave <at> farber.net>, Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>

Forbes is running a rather stunning series of articles about how
bloggers can damage corporations... here are some snippets.  Man, the
second one is styled as a "what you can do to protect yourself" piece
and they even recommend sending DMCA takedown notices to blog sites
that use your copyrighted material!  Which is how Diebold Election
Systems Inc. ended up paying the EFF about $125,000 for "copyright
misuse" (under 512(f)). -Joe

----

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/1114/128_print.html

Attack of the Blogs

Daniel Lyons, 11.14.05

----
Web logs are the prized platform of an online
lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies,
libel and invective. Their potent allies in this
pursuit include Google and Yahoo.
----
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 1 Nov 2005 19:51
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Private high school in New Jersey bans blogging [fs]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: NJ Private High School Bans Blogging
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:06:47 -0500
From: G.Waleed Kavalec <kavalec <at> gmail.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>
References: <be2aece50510241814i180c9f93mff4d117a9835da7f <at> mail.gmail.com>

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051024/NEWS01/510240324/1005

---------- Forwarded message ----------

<snip>
*Blogging ban provokes a debate over cyberspace*

Pope John H.S. demands that online profiles end, calls forums havens for
sexual predators

When students post their faces, personal diaries and gossip on Web sites
like Myspace.com <http://Myspace.com> and Xanga.com <http://Xanga.com>, it
is not simply harmless teen fun, according to one area Catholic school
principal.

It's an open invitation to predators and an activity Pope John XIII Regional
High School in Sparta will no longer tolerate, Rev. Kieran McHugh told a
packed assembly of 900 high school students two weeks ago.

Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to
dismantle their Myspace.com <http://Myspace.com> accounts or similar sites
with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension,
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 1 Nov 2005 19:58
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Weekly column: Who should you call a journalist, nowadays? [fs]


http://news.com.com/2010-1025_3-5907336.html

Perspective:  So who should you call a journalist?
By Declan McCullagh
October 24, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT

A renewed effort in the U.S. Congress to create a federal shield law for 
news organizations is raising a sticky question: Who is a journalist?

A generation ago, the answer usually was clear. Not anymore. Online 
scribes and video publishers are experimenting with novel forms of 
journalism, and even the most stodgy news organizations are embracing blogs.

That leaves politicians--hardly the most clued in about all things 
tech--in something of a quandary. They're being lobbied by professional 
news organizations and the American Bar Association to approve some kind 
of journalist's shield law while being urged by prosecutors to leave out 
bloggers.

The justification for a shield law is a perfectly reasonable one. After 
a federal appeals court enforced grand jury subpoenas against The New 
York Times and Time magazine, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to 
take the case, news organizations decided to fix the law.

The Justice Department took a swipe at the leading shield proposal 
(H.R.3323/S.1419) during a Senate hearing last week, arguing that it 
would let criminals pose as bloggers.

[...remainder snipped...]
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 1 Nov 2005 20:08
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Judge Alito, Supreme Court nominee and First Amendment maximalist [fs]

[Summary: A public school in Pennsylvania adopted a policy saying that
students can't say anything that may "offend" anyone else in certain
ways. Students' legal guardian sued, saying that policy violated the
First Amendment. The 3rd circuit agreed in a 3-0 decision written by
Judge Alito. Poorly-formatted excerpt follows. --Declan]

http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/994081.txt

We disagree with the District Court's reasoning. There is
no categorical "harassment exception" to the First
Amendment's free speech clause. Moreover , the SCASD
Policy prohibits a substantial amount of speech that would
not constitute actionable harassment under either federal
or state law.

There is of course no question that non-expressive,
physically harassing conduct is entir ely outside the ambit of
the free speech clause. But there is also no question that
the free speech clause protects a wide variety of speech that
listeners may consider deeply offensive, including
statements that impugn another's race or national origin or
that denigrate religious beliefs. See, e.g., Brandenburg v.
Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969); Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310
U.S. 296 (1940). When laws against harassment attempt to
regulate oral or written expression on such topics, however
detestable the views expressed may be, we cannot turn a
blind eye to the First Amendment implications. "Where pure
expression is involved," anti-discrimination law "steers into
the territory of the First Amendment." DeAngelis v. El Paso
Mun. Police Officers' Ass'n, 51 F.3d 591, 596 (5th Cir.
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 2 Nov 2005 03:52
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Sony CD copy protection hides itself in Windows operating system, with side effects [ip]

OTazMan was the first to send this along. Here are some more details in 
a comprehensible summary form:
http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5926657.html

 From what's been reported publicly so far, it seems that this is a 
braindead product decision by SonyBMG and the company deserves all the 
criticism it's going to receive.

But I wonder if SonyBMG's clumsy rootkit amounts to a "technological 
measure that effectively controls access to a (copyrighted) work." If 
so, why wouldn't removing it be a violation of section 1201(a) of the 
Digital Millennium Copyright Act? Chalk this up as yet another reason 
for DMCA reform:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/10/06/progress-and-freedom/

-Declan

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Sony installed DRM software that uses a rootkit to hide itself!
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 12:55:38 -0800
From: OTazMan <otazman <at> gmail.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>

I have never heard of DRM protection that hides in a RootKit and isn't
malware up until Sony just got done installing it. This needs to make the
main stream media.
Here is the link to the discovery:
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html
  The register with a summary article:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/sony_rootkit_drm/
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 2 Nov 2005 03:55
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Judge Samuel Alito's police-friendly views of electronic surveillance [priv]


http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5927003.html

Nominee's past rulings give hint of tech views
November 1, 2005, 4:58 PM PST

...snip...

In a case decided last year, Alito ruled that the FBI did not need a 
warrant to outfit the hotel suite of a boxing official with a hidden 
audio recorder and remotely controlled video camera that could swivel 
360 degrees. The devices were activated when a police informant was also 
present in the room of the official, who was suspected of taking bribes.

Alito's fellow judge Theodore McKee, a Clinton appointee, dissented on 
the grounds that advances in surveillance technology would eviscerate 
the privacy principles found in the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of 
"unreasonable searches."

"Given the evolving sophistication of technology, it is increasingly 
imperative that the fundamental liberties guaranteed under the Fourth 
Amendment not be eroded by the warrantless use of devices that allow the 
government to see through curtains, walls and doors," McKee wrote. "To 
the extent the Fourth Amendment has any vitality in an era of 
increasingly sophisticated electronic eavesdropping, it surely protects 
the privacy of someone in the intimacy of a hotel suite from the 
potential of warrantless 24-hour video surveillance."

...snip...
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 2 Nov 2005 19:10
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Replies to U.S. passports to receive RFID implants starting in October 2006 [priv]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/10/25/us-passports-to/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] U.S. passports to receive RFID implants starting 
      inOctober 2006 [priv]
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:17:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Kristopher Barrett <kbarrett <at> cotse.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>
CC: politech <at> politechbot.com
References: <435E943B.6020309 <at> well.com>

Declan McCullagh said:
> All U.S. passports will be implanted with remotely-readable computer
> chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced.

Expect to see passport RFID triggered terrorist bombs shortly afterwards.

Idiots.

--

-- 
Regards,
Kristopher Barrett

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] U.S. passports to receive RFID implants starting 
in October 2006 [priv]
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 14:39:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Alexander Molnar <dmolnar <at> EECS.berkeley.EDU>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 2 Nov 2005 19:32
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Reply to professor asking for help with learning economics through video games [econ]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/05/17/prof-asks-for/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Prof asks for help with unusual idea: learning 
     economics by video game [econ]
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:13:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Dan Fingerman <fingerman <at> aya.yale.edu>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>
CC: Russell Roberts <rrobert2 <at> gmu.edu>

Declan,

Richard Dawkins' writings on biological adaptive complexity may provide 
a good
example for Professor Roberts.  (However, most anologies between an economy
and biological adaptive complexity will break down if pressed too far.)

I just finished re-reading Richard Dawkins' book The Blind Watchmaker, in
which Dawkins discusses how adaptive complexity arises from mutation.  Genes
exert influence on the development of an individual organism through various
mechanisms, and changes in those genes can lead, over time, to complex 
changes
in a population of organisms.  (Dawkins further discusses how genes can 
reach
beyond individual organisms -- to affect populations and ecosystems -- in
other books, such as The Extended Phenotype and The Selfish Gene.)

In one example, discussed at length in The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins uses a
computer program to create "biomorphs" with nine "genes" that are programmed
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 2 Nov 2005 23:43
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How to Avoid Being BlogBashed, by law prof blogger Jim Maule [fs]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/11/01/forbes-runs-a/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Forbes runs a stunning series of articles 
onfightingbloggers [fs]
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:02:19 -0500
From: James Maule <Maule <at> law.villanova.edu>
To: <declan <at> well.com>

How to Avoid Being BlogBashed:

1. Create quality products and services.

2. Sell what you advertise.

3. Make certain your products and services do what they claim to do.

4. Fully test and study your products and services before offering them 
for sale.

5. Disclose all risks posed to purchasers of your products and services.

6. Tell the truth.

7. Fulfill your warranty promises.

8. Don't cut corners.

9. Comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 2 Nov 2005 23:45
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Replies to bizarre Forbes article, and a note of legal caution [fs]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/11/01/forbes-runs-a/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [Politech] Forbes runs a stunning series of articles on 
fightingbloggers [fs]
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 11:06:04 -0800
From: Malla Pollack <mpollack <at> uidaho.edu>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan <at> well.com>, politech <at> politechbot.com

While I love (politically) the anti-Diebold decision under 512(f), would-be
activists should be warned that it is a very bad analysis of the statutes
involved -- both the DMCA allowance of penalties for "bad" take down notices
and the fair use provisions of the copyright act.  I recently compiled a
list of decided 512(f) cases (few are reported) and Diebold is the only one
imposing a penalty for sending an overly aggressive notice.  The most
authoritative case on 512(f) is Rossi v. MPAA, 391 F.3d 1000 (9th Cir. 2004)
which holds that even unreasonable failure to investigate before sending a
notice does not create liability under 512(f).  I hate that outcome, but it
is a good reading of the statute.

Malla Pollack
Professor, American Justice School of Law
Visiting Univ. of Idaho, College of Law
mpollack <at> uidaho.edu
208-885-2017

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Forbes runs a stunning series of articles on 
fighting bloggers [fs]
(Continue reading)

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Gmane